Integration of ethical training into undergraduate senior design projects on wireless communications

Wireless communications engineers may face complex ethical dilemmas while designing products for consumers. At Florida International University\´s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, we place great importance on training our students to address such ethical dilemmas, in alignment with ABET requirements. To this end, an ethical training framework is integrated into our two-semester senior design project course. In addition to the codes of ethics, our students use "The Theory Model" to make decisions based on ethical theories. For the solution of ethical dilemmas by means of ethical theories, they apply a modified version of the line drawing method. In this article we briefly explain the theories and methods that our students consider when facing ethical dilemmas. Then we present excerpts from four past senior design projects related to wireless communications. We also summarize the methodology the students use for identifying the best option to address ethical dilemmas.